Hillary Clinton blasts Angela Merkel wiretap, Edward Snowden

Hillary Clinton this week criticized the alleged wiretapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, but she also had harsh words for Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker who revealed that and other American surveillance secrets.

The former secretary of state, a possible Democratic 2016 presidential candidate, told NPR’s Fresh Air in an interview that aired Thursday there is a need for a national “conversation” about how to balance civil liberties and national security. But, she insisted, Snowden’s decision to release huge troves of classified information about U.S. data-gathering activities was the wrong approach.

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“[We] also have to make sure that it doesn’t go too far, like I personally deplore the tapping of Angela Merkel’s cell phone,” Clinton said of the surveillance efforts. “That was unnecessary. But collecting information about what’s going around the world is essential to our security.”

Clinton noted that President Barack Obama and several lawmakers had already indicated openness to taking “a hard look at all of the laws that have been passed and how they were implemented since 9/11.”

Snowden “was not only an imperfect messenger, but he was a messenger who could have chosen other ways to raise the very specific issues about the impact on Americans,” she said.

“There were other ways that Mr. Snowden could have expressed his concerns — by reaching out to some of the senators or other members of Congress or journalists in order to convey his questions about the implementation of the laws surrounding the collection of information concerning Americans’ calls and emails,” she said.

“I think everyone would have applauded that because it would have added to the debate that was already started. Instead, he left the country — first to China, then to Russia — taking with him a huge amount of information about how we track the Chinese military’s investments and testing of military equipment, how we monitor the communications between al-Qaeda operatives. Just two examples.”

Clinton has long been assailed by some in the progressive wing of her party for being too hawkish. Some Republicans — such as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who also may run for president — have also criticized her over some of her national security positions, especially with regard to the NSA.

But Clinton was firm in the interview that the U.S. needs a strong surveillance infrastructure to protect itself.

“There is a concerted effort by many nations and other groups to acquire information about America’s military readiness, about its strategic planning, about its economic activities,” she said. “And what we turn to the intelligence community, including the NSA to do, is to make sure that they do everything they can to know what other people are trying to get from us and prevent that from happening.”